INTERVIEW: GARY HENKIN
increasing number of its US contracts involve taking on the management of existing – and oſt en under-performing – facilities, which according to Henkin presents unique obsta- cles: “It’s more challenging not only because of design constraints, but also people constraints. You’re picking up the baggage of a failing oper- ation and there’s a whole re-education process that has to happen. It’s one thing to scale a wall and leap over it, it’s another thing to run through the wall… and sometimes transitions are like running through a wall.” What WTS brings to these operations is a
focus on profi tability that was lacking when they opened. “Spas were put into hotels and
resorts years ago mainly as an amenity,” says Henkin. “In today’s world, we hardly speak to a hotel or resort that isn’t interested in their spa making profi t; and to make profi t spas have to be operated as businesses.” To make sure facilities see black ink, WTS
tracks everything from average treatment prices and revenue per treatment room to capture rates. Percentage of revenue gen- erated by retail is particularly important, says Henkin, and for hotel spas percent- age of external traffi c is also crucial. “T e average length of stay in urban hotels is gen- erally less than 1.5 days, and the challenge of getting those people to go to the spa when
their time is so precious is enormous,” he says. “So if you’re not proactively marketing to a non-guest clientele as well as internally, your spa may never be profi table.”
GLOBAL EXPANSION
For its fi rst 35 years, WTS operated solely in US territory, and the decision to go abroad was initially one of necessity. “Because vir- tually all new-builds shut down in the US [in the economic collapse], it gently pushed us to test the waters overseas,” says Henkin.
“It turned out there was a signifi cant interest, and we’re now happily ensconced in places like Asia, Africa and the Middle East.”
High-profi le clients include Trump (right), Ritz-Carlton, Wyndham Worldwide and the Fern Tree Spa at the Half Moon Bay resort in Jamaica (all other pictures)
70 Read Spa Business online
spabusiness.com / digital SPA BUSINESS 1 2012 ©Cybertrek 2012
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